AUGUST 2019 Political Articles

AUGUST 2019 POLITICAL ARTICLES

AUGUST 1 THROUGH 11

WEEKEND OF AUGUST 9-11, 2019

Weekend Read: Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back - by Amy Goodman. In this 2006 New York Times bestseller, brother-sister team of Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, and investigative journalist David Goodman takes on government liars, corporate profiteers, and the media that have acted as their cheerleaders. In Static, the authors cut through the official static to show the truth about war, torture, and government control of the media. Static breaks the sound barrier to present the voices of dissidents, activists, and others who are often frozen out of official debate. Buy here

Greetings from Hiroshima

Hiroshima Unlearned: Time to Tell the Truth About US Relations with Russia and Finally Ban the Bomb.
CounterPunch

If Inequality Continues to Grow at Current Rate, Richest Americans Will Own 100% of US Wealth in 33 Years: Analysis. ... "However you slice it, the rich have been getting richer. Lots richer." CommonDreams

Emergency Doctor to Trump: You Are Wrong, Mental Illness Is Not to Blame for Gun Violence Epidemic. DemocracyNow

Here is Exactly Why Congress Won’t Act on Gun Violence, Climate Change, Impeaching Trump or Anything Else. CounterPunch

World Must Protect Land To Avoid Climate Disaster, New UN Report Warns. ... Averting catastrophic warming requires rapid, global changes to land use and food production, the assessment says.
HuffPost

Tree planting 'has mind-blowing potential' to tackle climate crisis. ... Research shows a trillion trees could be planted to capture huge amount of carbon dioxide. Guardian

FBI’s Leniency Toward Border Vigilante Contrasts With Harsh Treatment of “Black Identity Extremist”. Intercept

Democratic Socialists of America Seize the Day. ... There was plenty of conflict at the DSA’s national convention, but delegates came out of it with a clear plan for the fight ahead. The Nation

Bolstering Call to Expand Social Security, New Reporting Reveals How Corporations Are Offloading Pensions. ... Not only are pensions being offered less, existing pensions are being transferred to insurers, with employees suffering consequences.
CommonDreams

Trump Follows Call For Unity After Shootings With Week Of Attacks. ... President Obama sang “Amazing Grace.” President Trump hurled insults at just about everyone. HuffPost

AUGUST 8, 2019

Business Group Spending to Influence Public Policy More Than Double What’s Reported ...
The Darkest Money In Washington: Business Groups Spend More On Advocacy And Consulting Than Lobbying. Tarbell

El Paso Was The Latest Target Of A Deadly, Global White Supremacist Movement ... The shooter may have acted alone, but he is part of a network that stretches from Christchurch to Charlottesville. HuffPost

“Fascism Will Not Go Away by Itself”: George Ciccariello-Maher on Confronting White Supremacy. DemocracyNow

'White power ideology': why El Paso is part of a growing global threat Guardian

The NRA Has Long Urged Americans To Arm Themselves Against An Immigrant Invasion. ...
The El Paso shooter reportedly used language eerily similar to the gun lobby’s own xenophobic rhetoric. HuffPost

NPR Shreds Ethics Handbook to Normalize Regime Change in Venezuela. FAIR

Judge Says Chelsea Manning Can Pay Fines, Despite Evidence to the Contrary. ... Manning will face another year in prison and ongoing financial hardship.
Sparrow Media

Pushing Out the Border: How the U.S. Is Waging a Global War on Migration. Intercept

Tell Rep. Adam Schiff to remove this dangerous secrecy provision from this year’s intelligence bill.
FPF

'Biggest Crisis No One Is Talking About': Quarter of Humanity Faces 'Extremely High Water Stress' Intensified by Climate Emergency. ... "A new generation of solutions is emerging, but nowhere near fast enough." CommonDreams

AUGUST 7, 2019

Tidbit: Wasn’t the Deep South built on the very idea of getting “free stuff”, as in free labor to build all the stuff you ever dreamed of having. And when that went away along came pols like Huey Long to dish out free stuff from the Guv’mint: highways, price supports, dams, electricity…

The Artist as Prophet. TruthDig/Hedges

After El Paso, We Can No Longer Ignore Trump’s Role in Inspiring Mass Shootings. Intercept

(2008) Sources: Top Bush Advisors Approved 'Enhanced Interrogation'. ABC

CLICK BAIT

Trump Disavows Supporters Who Could Barely Keep Racist Chant Going For 10 Seconds. > Go

Republicans Defend Trump’s Decision to Give Putin Office Space at White House. > Go

Trump Aides Go Into Crisis Mode After President’s Errant Remarks Condemning White Supremacy.
> Go

Ex-FBI Agent Speaks Out: Federal Authorities Have Downplayed White Supremacist Violence for Too Long. DemocracyNow

Newsflash: Trump and DeVos Do Not Want to Get Government Out of For-Profit College Industry. CounterPunch

Grades Are Capitalism in Action. Let’s Get Them Out of Our Schools. TruthOut

Ex-Health Insurance Exec: Industry Is Using Decades-Old Scare Tactics to Fight Medicare for All.
DemocracyNow

As Ilhan Omar Said, Trump Is a Fascist TruthDig

Pushing Out the Border: How the U.S. Is Waging a Global War on Migration. Intercept

Edward Snowden book coming out Sept. 17. AP

AUGUST 6, 2019

Tidbit: If you haven’t been paying attention to the Dem. Party for the last 40 years and just now tuned into the presidential debates, you might be shocked at how hostile it is to even debat the modest and sensible ideas proposed by Sanders & Warren. With each mention of “single payer,” “free college,” or “green new deal,” the Party writhes wildly like Linda Blair’s possessed body being sprinkled with Holy Water.

In the World of Truth and Fact, Russiagate is Dead. In the World of the Political Establishment, it is Still the New 42. Craig Murray

Mueller hearing is another Russiagate dud. ... Robert Mueller’s Congressional appearance, which delivered no new bombshells; more unhinged Russia-baiting; and only more doubts about the Russia investigation and the Democrats that promoted it.
The Gray Zone

Defense Secretary Reveals Plan For Ground-Launched Missiles In Asia ... “I would prefer months, but these things tend to take longer than you expect,” Mark Esper said the day after the U.S. withdrew from an arms control treaty with Russia. HuffPost

We must change food production to save the world, says leaked report. ... Cutting carbon from transport and energy ‘not enough’ IPCC finds. Guardian
Related: Drastic Changes to Food Production and Consumption Needed to Save Planet From Catastrophic Warming, IPCC Reveals.
CommonDreams

Climate System “Getting Unhinged” as Massive Heat Wave Causes Record Melting of Greenland Ice Sheet. DemocracyNow

Indigenous Groups Applaud Protection of Grizzly Bear as Liz Cheney Claims Rule Harms 'Western Way of Life' ... "Liz Cheney is very upset that the people whose land was taken have interfered with the people who took the land.". CommonDreams

“You’re Gonna Kill Me”: Bodycam Video Shows Dallas Officers Mocking Man as He Died Pinned to Ground. DemocracyNow

AUGUST 5, 2019

Tidbit: Two hours into the second debate before the first question about Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan, Venezuela, North Korea. The foreign policy segment lasted for all of six minutes and was cut-off before a word could be said about Iran.

US Leaders Can Now Be Prosecuted for Illegal War. TruthOut

Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US. ... The US military is conducting wide-area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal. Guardian

In the World of Truth and Fact, Russiagate is Dead. In the World of the Political Establishment, it is Still the New 42. Craig Murray

The Metadata Trap..... The Trump Administration Is Using the Full Power of the U.S. Surveillance State Against Whistleblowers Intercept

Hacked Emails Show GOP Demands on Border Security Were Crafted by Industry Lobbyists.
Intercept

Boris Johnson’s Fake Radicalism. Craig Murray

America Has Gulags in Its Own Backyard.
TruthDig

Senator Harris: You really need to rethink your plan to put private insurers in charge of Medicare ... Harris's plan won't work and history will prove it. TarBell

‘You don’t have any rights’: CBP agents interrogate US citizen and seize his phone after Venezuela solidarity trip. ... The detention of a US citizen returning from Venezuela was an apparent extension of the US government’s efforts to punish citizens who have protested its policy of regime change and economic warfare. The Gray Zone

WEEKEND OF AUGUST 2-4, 2019

Weekend Read - The Big Heat by Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank. The world as we know it is undergoing a sudden and violent transformation, unlike anything the planet has experienced since the Cretaceous Extinction. The evidence is all around us: vast droughts that last decades, super-storms and floods that destroy cities, dwindling aquifers, vanishing glaciers, toxic water supplies, raging wildfires, obscure new diseases, vanishing species and indigenous communities. Our planet is changing faster than evolution can keep up. CounterPunch

With Nation's Attention on Democratic Debate, McConnell Advances Over a Dozen Lifetime Trump Judges. ... "Confronting this generational shift in our courts will be one of the most pressing issues for the next president—in fact, the viability of his or her entire agenda depends on it." CommonDreams

U.S. Troops Are Back in Saudia Arabia - This Will End Badly. TruthDig

Trump Administration Imposes Sanctions On Iran’s Foreign Minister. ... The move against Javad Zarif threatens the chances of diplomacy to reduce tensions between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic. HuffPost

More Than Three Eco-Defenders Killed Per Week in 2018 While Fighting to Protect Wildlife, Homes, and Livelihoods. ... "They say we are terrorists, delinquents, assassins and that we have armed groups here, but really they're just killing us." CommonDreams

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders Dominate Democratic Debate Set Up to Ambush Them.
Intercept

The 2020 Candidates Are Ignoring Guantánamo.
TruthOut

American Politicians Use Jews as Pawns to Excuse Their Meddling in Israeli Elections.
CounterPunch

California honeybees are still declining. Trump administration says it can’t afford to study it.
McClatchy

Democrats Urged to 'Oppose This Takeover' as McConnell Rushes to Confirm 19 Right-Wing Judges Before Recess. ... "Senators must put an end to this blatant disrespect to our judicial system, traditions, and democracy." CommonDreams

On Voting Rights, the US Is Behind Much of the World. TruthOut

AUGUST 1, 2019

Tidbit: Nestle takes 45 million gallons:daily from San Bernadio National Forest. $Zero is the amount they pay for that water.

Sanders & Warren Fight “Republican Talking Point” That Medicare for All Is About Reducing Coverage
DemocracyNow

Democrats Must Give Up ‘Center Is Better’ Myth.
TruthDig

Mass Protests in Colombia and Abroad Decry Killings of 500 Activists Since Peace Accords. DemocracyNow

A “No Deal” Brexit Would Spark an Economic Cold War with the EU. CounterPunch/Cockburn

ACLU Says Trump Admin Has Separated 900 Migrant Children Despite Court Order. The government was asked to curtail the practice happening at the U.S.-Mexico border last year. HuffPost

Insane press conference yesterday with Bolsonaro’s spokesperson saying Glen Greenwald committed a crime. - Reporter: What was the crime committed?
Spokesman: Is there any doubt?
Reporter: What was the crime committed?
Spokesman: The president has no doubt.
Rreporter: What was the crime?
Spokesman: Next question .

More Than 160 Environmental Defenders Were Killed in 2018, and Many Others Labeled Terrorists and Criminals. Intercept

New BLM Appointee Brings Conflicts of Interest and Plans to Sell Off Public Lands to Agency Charged With Protecting Them. ... "It's hard to imagine anyone in this position more dangerous than William Perry Pendley." CommonDreams

Anti-Semitism and Zionism Have Formed a Brutal Alliance. TruthOut

Nicaraguan ‘human rights’ director accused by staff of massive theft of US taxpayer money, death toll inflation. ... ANPDH’s board members are accusing their director of stealing huge sums from US soft power organizations and inflating death tolls during last year’s coup attempt in Nicaragua. The OAS, which relied heavily on ANPDH’s flawed data, has kept silent so far. The Gray Zone

AUGUST 12 THROUGH 22

WEEKEND OF AUGUST 23-25, 2019

Weekend Read: Democracy Incorporated Managed Democracy & the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism - by Sheldon S Wolin. - With his fundamental grasp of political theory and restless spirit to get at the essence of what threatens modern democracy, Wolin demonstrates that the threats to our democratic traditions and institutions are not always from outside, but may come from within. It is a book that policymakers and scholars of contemporary society should read and reflect upon. Powell's Books

40 rebuttals to the media’s smears of Julian Assange – by someone who was actually there. ... A former diplomat who worked in the Ecuadorian embassy while Julian Assange lived there in asylum debunks 40 of CNN’s smears against the WikiLeaks publisher. The Gray Zone

ENVIRONMENT

'Game-Changer': Sanders Unveils Green New Deal Plan Detailing 10-Year Mobilization to Avert Climate Catastrophe, Create 20 Million Jobs. ... "This is a pivotal moment in the history of America—and really, in the history of humanity." CommonDreams

Rainforest on Fire - On the Front Lines of Bolsonaro’s War on the Amazon, Brazil’s Forest Communities Fight Against Climate Catastrophe. Intercept

Trump is expected to snub the next U.N. climate summit. McClatchy

Protests Break Out After DNC Committee Votes Against Holding 2020 #ClimateDebate. ... Outraged members of the Sunrise Movement stood on chairs singing the union protest song "Which Side Are You On?"CommonDreams

Brazil’s Amazon Fires Highlight The Threat Of Deregulation Amid Climate Change. ... The blazes are roasting South America’s biggest country just as far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is rolling back environmental and indigenous protections. HuffPost

Brazil Was a Global Leader on Climate Change. Now It’s a Threat. ... Jair Bolsonaro’s government could roll back decades of progress on clean energy and reducing deforestation. Foreign Policy

Brazilian minister booed at climate event as outcry grows over Amazon fires. ... Political storm over rainforest devastation as Ricardo Salles attends summit. Guardian

Trump rule would allow for indefinite detention of immigrant families. ... New rule would effectively replace the Flores agreement, which sets 20-day limit for families held in custody. NY Times Related: Migrants in US border detention centers won't receive flu vaccine The Hill

Just Hours After Anti-Semitic Remarks, Trump Self-Promotes Himself as 'King of Israel... Second Coming of God'. ... "The President is a raving lunatic," responded Florida Democrat Andrew Gillum. "He is not well." CommonDreams

hoshana Zuboff: Surveillance Capitalism and Our Democracy YouTube video

‘Pragmatic’: How Corporate Media Praise Dems Who Abandon Progressive Values. FAIR

Democrats Are Waging a Covert War on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez TruthDig

A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas 1492 to the Present.CounterPunch

The Final Placement Syndrome or When Enough Is Enough. Comm130A

Chomsky: By Focusing on Russia, We Ignore Trump’s Existential Threat to Climate. TruthOut

The Forest Service Puts Ranchers Ahead of Grizzlies (and the Public Interest). CounterPunch

AUGUST 22, 2019

Democrats Have An Open Senate Seat in New Mexico. Will They Elect A Progressive, or the Former Head of the DCCC? Intercept

Big Pharma: Gouges, Casualties, and the Congressional Remedy! CounterPunch

The Racist Right Has Been Searching For Trump All Along TruthDig

We Are Already Living on an Orwellian Planet. TruthOut

4,000 detained in Kashmir since autonomy stripped: govt sources. France24

Facial recognition is now rampant. The implications for our freedom are chilling. ... This new technology is being secretly used on streets and in shopping centres across Britain, making potential suspects of us all. Guardian

The Biotech-Industrial Complex Gets Ready to Define What is Human. CounterPunch

Google Is Deepening Its Involvement With Egypt’s Repressive Government. Intercept

Who Inflicts the Most Gun Violence in America? The U.S. Government and Its Police Forces.
CounterPunch

Trump Accuses Most American Jews of “Disloyalty” to Israel, Deploying Anti-Semitic Trope.Intercept

Put an End to the Endless War Inflicted Upon Our National Forests. CounterPunch

AUGUST 21, 2019

Oil Lobbyist Touts Success in Effort to Criminalize Pipeline Protests, Leaked Recording Shows.Intercept
Related: Secwempemc Activists: ‘Despite Government Approval the TMX Pipeline Will Never be Built’
SparrowMedia

Our Lords, Their Flies. CounterPunch

Activist Scott Warren, Facing Federal Charges for Aiding Migrants, Says He Won’t Be Deterred.
DemocracyNow

CLICK BAIT

Origin Of A Billionaire: Jeff Bezos Just Revealed He Got The Idea For Amazon After Watching A Robot Give A Man A Box Of Condoms. > Go

Queen Elizabeth Moving to Canada. > Go

Republicans Defend Trump’s Decision to Give Putin Office Space at White House. > Go

Uncle Sam was born lethal. Jackpine Radicals

Kamala Harris, Who Just Clarified Her Rejection of Real Medicare for All, to Snub Climate Forum in Favor of Big Donors. ... "We need a leader who prioritizes the future of humanity over rubbing elbows with millionaires and billionaires."
CommonDreams

Who Inflicts the Most Gun Violence in America? The U.S. Government and Its Police Forces. CounterPunch

NOAA: July Was Officially the Hottest Month on Record. ... July was the 415th consecutive month with above-average temperatures.
DemocracyNow

The Myth of the ‘Lone Wolf’ Shooter Blinds Us to the Reality of White Supremacy. ... Thinking of these killers as “lone wolf” actors makes it easier to dismiss them as demented individuals, hapless victims of bad parenting, self-destructive misfits, or erratic evil doers. But we need to see these “lone wolf” white supremacists for what they are—members of “wolf packs.” ReWire

Example of 'Unknown Unknowns,' Study Detailing 'Almost Instant Mortality of Corals' Suggests Crisis Worse Than Previously Understood. ... "The water temperatures are so warm that the coral animal doesn't bleach... the animal dies and its underlying skeleton is all that remains." CommonDreams

Big Pharma: Gouges, Casualties, and the Congressional Remedy! CounterPunch

AUGUST 20, 2019

Tidbit: Trump’s solution to mass shootings: Involuntary confinement, banning “violent” video games , expansion of the death penalty and bulletproof backpacks.

The World According to George Galloway. ... There are few politicians in Britain who are attacked by the courtiers in the press and the mandarins in power more ferociously than George Galloway, a former member of Parliament and an icon of the left. TruthDig/Hedges

July 2019 was hottest month on record for the planet. ... Polar sea ice melted to record lows.
ScienceDaily

Put an End to the Endless War Inflicted Upon Our National Forests. CounterPunch

Welcome to Ayn Rand's America TruthDig

Is Russian Mob drug money going to Trump re-election? Hopsicker

5 Years After Ferguson, The Justice Department Has All But Ended Federal Police Reform. ... The Trump administration has sharply curtailed the department’s ability to rein in troubled police departments.
HuffPost

Democracy Dies Without Alternative Media
TruthDig

Sanders Says If Israel Wants to Ban Members of Congress, It Should Not Receive Billions in US Military Aid. ... "The idea that a member of the United States Congress cannot visit a nation which, by the way, we support to the tune of billions and billions of dollars is clearly an outrage." CommonDreams

Here’s the Evidence Corporate Media Say Is Missing of WaPo Bias Against Sanders. FAIR

The Rise of the American Gestapo.
CounterPunch

AUGUST 19, 2019

American History for Truthdiggers: Bush II and the Birth of Forever War. TruthDig

Our Lords, Their Flies. CounterPunch

From Hong Kong to Kashmir to the US, Authoritarianism Is Rising. TruthOut

The Electability Myth: Read the Report. Reflective Democracy

Documents Shine New Light on Koch Brothers’ Efforts to Abolish Energy Department. TruthOut

Memo to mainstream journalists: Can the phony outrage; Bernie is right about bias. ... Mainstream media is shocked at Sanders' suggestion that ownership influences coverage. I can tell you it's true. Salon

Politics and Psychiatry: the Cost of the Trauma Cover-Up. CounterPunch

Trump Administration Weakens Endangered Species Act Amid Global Extinction Crisis. ... Environ-mentalists see the rule as another handout to industry amid rising alarm that the ecosystems on which humans rely are collapsing. HuffPost

Trump administration authorizes 'cyanide bombs' to kill wild animals. ... The poison-filled, spring-loaded traps, called M-44s, are used by Wildlife Services for the benefit of farmers and ranchers. Guardian

The Kochs Funded Third Way to Push Free Trade to Democrats, New Book Says. Intercept

Uncle Sam was Born Lethal. CounterPunch

WEEKEND OF AUGUST 16-18, 2019

Weekend Read: Bundyville Chapter One: A War in the Desert Cliven Bundy and his sons led two armed standoffs against the federal government and beat them twice in court. The Bundys and their supporters see themselves as Patriots fighting government overreach. Others see them as domestic terrorists rallying extremists and conspiracy theorists to their side. What is the truth?
LongReads

The British Still Haven’t Learned the Lessons of the Troubles. CounterPunch/Cockburn

Bad Information. ... Border Patrol Arrest Reports Are Full of Lies That Can Sabotage Asylum Claims. Intercept

“A Narco State Supported by the United States”: How Crime & Corruption in Honduras Fuel Migration. DemocracyNow

Trump’s plan to take wolves off the endangered species list is deeply flawed. ... Scientists who study gray wolves think it’s too soon to claim victory in their recovery. Vox

JEFFREY EPSTEIN

Epstein’s Death Should Generate Investigations, Not Conspiracy Theories. . ... Anti-Clinton/Trump hashtags will not get to the bottom of Epstein's death, or how the rich and powerful's involvement in child sex abuse, The Nation's Jeet Heer explains. Real News Network

Epstein, Faction, and Neopatrimonialism. CounterPunch

The Jeffrey Epstein Scandal Is Much Bigger Than Jeffrey Epstein TruthDig

Horror at MCC: “Gulag” Conditions at NYC Jail Were Known for Decades Before Jeffrey Epstein’s Death. DemocracyNow

Confounding New Details Emerge in Epstein Case TruthDig

Jeffrey Epstein’s Eyes. CounterPunch

Epstein’s Death Must Be the Start, not the End, of the Investigation. Craig Murray

While Poorest Scapegoated, Analysis of 25 World's Wealthiest Families a Reminder of Inequality's Economic Drain. ... "It's funny that the real truth about income inequality is not coming from the south like some would like you to believe—the sucking sound draining the middle-class is the 1 percent... Just saying." CommonDreams

America's True Religion Is Destroying Our Collective Soul. TruthDig

Nothing Less Than a Revolution Can Save Us. CounterPunch

Beyond ‘Thoughts and Prayers’: How the Christian Right’s Politics of Providentialism Keeps America from Addressing Gun Violence. Rewire News

Consuming the “Planet of the Humans:” The Most Important Documentary of the Century. CounterPunch

The Mass Migration Trump Doesn't Want You to Know About . TruthDig

AUGUST 15, 2019

Assange Must Not Also Die in Jail.Craig Murray

New UN Report Puts A Dagger Through Climate Deniers’ Favorite Argument ... No, carbon dioxide emissions are not “good” for global food production. HuffPost

'Egregious Handout' to Corporate Polluters as Trump EPA Moves to Accelerate Pipeline Approvals With Attack on Clean Water Act. ... "This attempted power grab at the expense of state-based clean water oversight is the epitome of hypocrisy." CommonDreams

Supersizing Climate Change: U.N. Says Meat Production Destroys Land & Diminishes Key Water Sources. DemocracyNow

Careerism and the War Machine. CounterPunch

The NRA Is a Symptom of the Racism That Drives Violence in the US. TruthOut

Revealed: Republican lawmaker aided group training young men for 'biblical warfare'. ...The group ‘Team Rugged’ offers ‘patriotic and biblical training’ that includes instruction on how to use knives and guns. Guardian

New UN Report Puts A Dagger Through Climate Deniers’ Favorite Argument. ... No, carbon dioxide emissions are not “good” for global food production. HuffPost

Militarized Observers: Institutional Daydreams of Ethics End Runs to Weaponize Culture. CounterPunch

American History for Truthdiggers: Bush II and the Birth of Forever War . TruthDig

Mass-Shootings as Expressions of U.S. Racism. CounterPunch

Massacres at Home and Abroad. CounterPunch

AUGUST 14, 2019

'Disgusting and Disturbing': Trump Guts Endangered Species Act in Gift to Big Business. ..."This administration seems set on damaging fragile ecosystems by prioritizing industry interests over science." CommonDreams

The Myth of Resistance Inside the Trump Administration. ... The adults in the room are complicit in a dangerous presidency. The Nation

Nancy Pelosi Can't Mask Her Contempt for Progressives. TruthDig

CLICK BAIT

Trump Demands Facebook Investigate Why Obama’s Post Got So Many Likes. > Go

EPA Administrator Proves Carbon Emissions Not Harmful By Inhaling Directly From Truck’s Tailpipe. > Go

Putin Denies Mitch McConnell Is Russian Asset: “He Has Never Been an Asset To Any Country": > Go

Free Julian Assange, before it's too late. Sign to STOP the USA Extradition. Change.org

Criminalizing Compassion ... The Unraveling of the Conspiracy Case Against No More Deaths Volunteer Scott Warren. Intercept

Is Trump Building a White Ethnostate? TruthDig

The NYT’s Pro-War Arguments Against War With Iran. FAIR

There Are ‘Thousands And Thousands’ Of Other Documents On Jeffrey Epstein Case: Journalist. ... Troves of evidence and testimony spell trouble for possible Epstein co-conspirators, warns Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown. HuffPost

Biden Is Doubling Down on Iraq War Lies.
TruthOut

Leaked Draft of Trump Executive Order to 'Censor the Internet' Denounced as Dangerous, Unconstitutional Edict.... "In practice, this executive order would mean that whichever political party is in power could dictate what speech is allowed on the Internet." CommonDreams

Nancy Pelosi’s Bad Attitude Toward Progressives. CounterPunch

Israel Systematically Blocks International Scholars From Reaching Palestine. TruthOut

On Banning Terrorist Boots: This Is What Occupation Looks Like. CommonDreams

AUGUST 13, 2019

An important read:
Fear vs Fear. .... The old rules of politics no longer apply. The only language understood by Donald Trump and his coterie of con artists, billionaires, generals, misfits and Christian fascists—and a Democratic Party that has sold us out—is fear. TruthDig/Hedges

Lindsey Graham Says Republicans Will Try to "Repeal and Replace" Obamacare - Again. Newsweek

MONSANTO AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Mondanto Resources: US Right to Know

Monsanto Years: Neil Young Mix You Tube

Monsanto's Disinformation Campaign

Critics Say Monsanto's Spying and Intimidation Operation Exposes Company's 'Toxic Corporate Culture' and Threatens Journalists' Rights. ... New documents reveal Monsanto's 'fusion center' aimed at targeting and discrediting journalists and critics. CommonDreams

Monsanto's Fusion Center

ACSH (American Council on Science and Health)

Documents Reveal Monsanto Surveilled Journalists, Activists & Even Musician Neil Young. DemocracyNow

Hit piece by Monsanto: Gary Ruskin, GMO Labeling Movement Funded By Anti-vaxxers. AgNewsFeed

I’m a journalist. Monsanto built a step-by-step strategy to destroy my reputation
Carey Gillam. ... Company records show an action plan that includes promoting certain search results and targeting book reviews. Guardian

Another hit piece - Monsanto Exec Reveals $17 Million Budget For Anti-IARC, Pro-Glyphosate Efforts Right To Know

Revealed: how Monsanto's 'intelligence center' targeted journalists and activists. ... Internal documents show how the company worked to discredit critics and investigated singer Neil Young. Guardian

Facial Recognition Technology Is Aiding ICE in Sanctuary Cities. TruthOut

Do You Have to Carry ID With You at All Times? FindLaw

Chagos children ‘stuck for years in unsafe lodgings’. ... Families of islanders housed in council-allocated accommodation deemed inappropriate by social services. Guardian

'Gold Over Life, Literally': How Trump Forced Reversal on Mining Project EPA Scientists Warn Could Destroy Alaskan Salmon Ecosystem. CommonDreams

'Unacceptable': Tom Perez, DNC Accused of Trying to Stifle Climate Debate for 2020 Dems. ... "Why is Tom Perez trying to kill the momentum for a climate debate?" CommonDreams

AUGUST 12, 2019

As Trump talks of keeping guns out of the hands people with mental illnesses, it’s worth mentioning that barely a month into his presidency, he revoked an Obama rule designed to keep guns from people with severe mental illnesses.

From El Paso to the War on Terror, the Dangers of Historical Amnesia. Intercept

ONE SCUMBAG DOWN THOUSANDS TO GO

Newly Unsealed Court Records Detail Jeffrey Epstein And Prince Andrew Accusations. ... Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre has previously named other powerful men. Now more than 2,000 pages of testimony and other records are public. HuffPost

Court releases documents about Jeffrey Epstein, accused in sex traffic case, and his alleged procurer Ghislaine Maxwell. CNBC

Prince Andrew groped young woman's breast at Epstein house, court files allege. Guardian

Epstein’s Death Must Be the Start, not the End, of the Investigation. Craig Murray

Flight Logs Put Clinton, Dershowitz on Pedophile Billionaire’s Sex Jet. Gawker

The Rise of the American Gestapo.
CounterPunch

Revealed: FBI and police monitoring Oregon anti-pipeline activists. ... Emails show the latest example of environmental groups facing increased surveillance by law enforcement. Guardian Related: Emails show Iraq War PR alumni guided government response to Standing Rock protests. ... Veterans of Bush era “damage control” worked to discredit pipeline opposition as “out of state agitators” with ties to Palestine and George Soros. MuckRock

What a Protest in Hong Kong Looks Like When Pro-Democracy Marchers Lose Their Fear of the Police. Intercept

Robert Reich: The American Dream Is Built on a Myth. TruthDig

Lindsey Graham brags about his shockingly cynical strategy to repeal Obamacare. ... It's all about pitting Americans against each other. ThinkProgress

Militarized Observers: Institutional Daydreams of Ethics End Runs to Weaponize Culture. CounterPunch

Deficit Hawks Are Enabling the Next US War.
TruthOut

Kashmir Under Siege: India Moves to Annex Territory, Heightening Tensions with Nuclear Rival Pakistan. DemocracyNow

AUGUST 26 THROUGH 31

Weekend of August 30 - September 2, 2019

Weekend Read: American Nightmare: Facing the Challenge of Fascism - by Henry A. Giroux. As white supremacy, ultra-nationalism, rabid misogyny and anti-immigrant fervor coalesce, a new and uniquely American form of fascism looms. Could our current moment actually bring about the end of democracy in the United States? Are Americans willing to surrender their freedom and dignity, along with their ongoing struggle for equality, justice and mutual respect in the face of the rising tide of political and ideological extremism? Amazon

The Queen’s Active Role in the Right Wing Coup. Craig Murray

When Ilhan Omar Is Accused of Anti-Semitism, It’s News. When a Republican Smears Muslims, There’s Silence. Intercept

Boris Johnson Crosses the Rubicon: We Must React Now. Craig Murray

The New Politics of the White (Supremacist) Evangelical Republican Party. CounterPunch Related: Conservative Evangelicals Aren’t Hypocrites, They’re Sadists. Rewire

THE KOCH

“Kochland”: How David Koch Helped Build an Empire to Shape U.S. Politics & Thwart Climate Action. DemocracyNow

The Koch brothers tried to build a plutocracy in the name of freedom ... The Kochs have always believed that rich people had the right to rule over everyone else, democracy be damned.
Guardian

Death and destruction: this is David Koch's sad legacy. ... Anarcho-capitalism was the real cancer plaguing the billionaire libertarian. And it spread across universities, halls of Congress and the White House. Guardian

Viral Video of Mississippi Voting Machine Changing Man's Vote Prompts Calls for Paper Ballots and Election Security Reformiral Video of Mississippi Voting Machine Changing Man's Vote Prompts Calls for Paper Ballots and Election Security Reform. CommonDreams

How Bolsonaro’s Climate Change Denial & Anti-Indigenous Policies Led to Massive Fires in the Amazon. DemocracyNow

CEOs Say Shareholders Won’t Be No. 1 Anymore. Turns Out They Already Weren’t. CounterPunch

How Joe Biden’s privatization plans helped doom Latin America and fuel the migration crisis.
The Gray Zone

Beto O’Rourke Built His Career on Driving Out Low-Income Mexican Communities. TruthOut

Incoming Harvard Freshman Deported After Visa Revoked. The Crimson

Land transfer advocate and longtime agency combatant now leads BLM. ... William Perry Pendley has been tasked with overseeing 245 million acres of public lands he’s argued the federal government shouldn’t own. High Country News

August 29, 2019

GateHouse’s Takeover of Gannett: Bad News for Journalism and the Planet. FAIR

Before Kamala Harris Soured on Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for All Bill, She Grew Her Email List From It. Intercept

Why is the Far-Right Rising Globally? (1/2). ... Walden Bello, author of "Counterrevolution: The Global Rise of the Far-Right," argues that the far-right is in ascendancy at the moment not only in reaction to the failures of neoliberalism, but also because of the failures of liberal democracy.
TRNN

A Top Financier of Trump and McConnell Is a Driving Force Behind Amazon Deforestation. Intercept

Fires are devouring the Amazon. And Jair Bolsonaro is to blame. ... The ongoing destruction of the Amazon is taking place because of policy choices made by those who now rule Brazil. Guardian

New Poll Shows 'Deep and Boiling Anger' Towards Political Establishment Still Widespread. ... More than half of respondents also said race relations are worsening under Trump and that they feel "anxious and uncertain" because of the economy. CommonDreams

Israel bombs Iraq, escalating violence targeting Iran
An Israeli bombing of a weapons depot allegedly used by Iran is the first Israeli strike on Iraq in nearly forty years and a major escalation of Israel’s campaign against Tehran. The attack also underscores how Israeli violence on its neighbors has been normalized, As’ad AbuKhalil argues.
The Gray Zone

After Handing Rich $1.5 Trillion Tax Cut, Trump Reportedly Considering Slashing Medicare and Social Security as 'Second-Term Project' ..."Mr. Trump, you are not going to have a second term," tweeted Sen. Bernie Sanders in response to the president's reported plan. CommonDreams

WaPo Complicit in Corruption of DC Council’s Corporate ‘Concierge’ FAIR

August 28, 2019

Noam Chomsky: Democrats Are Failing the Test of Our Time. TruthDig

Freedom of the Press? Not in the U.S.. .... The United States ranks 48th among nations for press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders.. CounterPunch

Dissent Is Being Criminalized Right Under Our Noses . TruthDig

CLICK BAIT
Completely unburdened by
hope for the future

Trump Attempts To Ease Tensions With Jewish Community By Noting He Also Would've Murdered Christ. > Go

Pentagon Awards Oscar Mayer $102 Million Contract For New Military-Grade Hot Dog With All The Fixings > Go

Trump Disavows Supporters Who Could Barely Keep Racist Chant Going For 10 Seconds. > Go

Trump’s Concentration Camps for Children
August 23, 2019. .... This week, the Trump Administration declared that immigrant children can be detained indefinitely, and in conditions that can be described as concentration camps. We talk to Sasha Abramsky of The Nation. TRNN

Sheldon Wolin and Inverted Totalitarianism .
TruthDig

After Handing Rich $1.5 Trillion Tax Cut, Trump Reportedly Considering Slashing Medicare and Social Security as 'Second-Term Project'. ... "Mr. Trump, you are not going to have a second term," tweeted Sen. Bernie Sanders in response to the president's reported plan. CommonDreams

Donald Trump Is Coming for Medicare and Social Security. TruthDig

The Biotech-Industrial Complex Gets Ready to Define What is Human. CounterPunch

Plan clears way for mining and drilling on land stripped from Utah monument. ... Management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante, downsized by Trump administration in 2017, criticized as ‘a giveaway to fossil fuel’ Guardian

August 27, 2019

The Curse of Moral Purity. TruthDig/Hedges

GOP Lobbyists Help Brazil Recruit U.S. Companies to Exploit the Amazon. Intercept

Notes on Inauthenticity in a Creeping Fascist Nuthouse. CounterPunch

Kamala Harris Has Nothing to Offer Progressives
TruthDig

15 Former Spooks Who Work At CNN And MSNBC Now. Daily Caller

Trump’s Greenland Comments Follow Tradition of Violent Colonialism. TruthOut

We can't trust police to protect us from racist violence. They contribute to it. ... White nationalists pervade law enforcement. Fighting far right violence means continuing our fight for police accountability
Guardian

Mike Pompeo Has Extreme Views on Muslims — and Liberals Don’t Seem to Care. Intercept

The Mythology of the Stock Market.
CounterPunch

Ex-minister: Bolsonaro ‘most detested’ leader as he neglects the Amazon. ... Rubens Ricupero warns the far-right leader is wreaking havoc on Brazil’s environment and its global standing. Guardian

Bernie Sanders’s Climate Plan Is More Radical Than His Opponents’ — And More Likely to Succeed. Intercept

August 26, 2019

The U.S. Border Patrol and an Israeli Military Contractor Are Putting a Native American Reservation Under “Persistent Surveillance” Intercept

Notes on Inauthenticity in a Creeping Fascist Nuthouse. CounterPunch Related: (2015) Sheldon Wolin and Inverted Totalitarianism TruthDig

Henry A. Giroux: Neoliberal Capitalism Sets the Stage for Fascism. TruthOut

Corporate Media Filled With Nameless Voices Attacking Progressive Democrats. FAIR

The Latest Victim in the Crucifixion of Julian Assange TruthDig

When ICE Comes for Their Neighbors, These Community Defense Brigades Will Be Ready. ... In the era of Trump, communities are organizing foot and bike patrols to protect their neighbors against immigration raids. In These Times

It’s Time to Indict Aung San Suu Kyi for Genocide Against the Rohingya in Myanmar. Intercept

Police Use Your Money to Buy Silence from Brutality Victims/ TRNN

US Set to Blow Other Countries Away With 'Staggering' Scale of New Oil and Gas Production. ... Over next decade, unlesss its trajectory changes, 61 percent of new global production will come from the US. CommonDreams

Democrats More Positive About Socialism Than Capitalism. Gallup

Who Inflicts the Most Gun Violence in America? The U.S. Government and Its Police Forces. CounterPunch

Epstein docs a Florida ‘deep dive’. MadCow